Joseph Abraham set Indian Record in 400m Hurdles

Joseph Abraham of CRPF set another National Record in the men’s 400m hurdles with a timing of 50.04s, narrowly missing the sub 50 barrier. Leading from start to finish Joseph thrashed every opponent on his way to victory including his arch rival P. Shankar
(51.84s) of Andhra Pradesh and Kuldev Singh (51.97s) of Punjab Police. Incidentally, Joseph improved the stadium record of 50.43s of Sahib Singh set in 1998 whose National record remained intact till last year.
         Joseph, SAF Games 2006 Bronze medallist, coached by Rajinder Singh since 2003, had shown steady improvements in 400m hurdles. Since then, Joseph had climbed up from 55s to 50.04s. “Today, Joseph clocked best timing over each hurdles but he was too fast at the start and that’s why he overdrive in second hurdle clearance otherwise he ran fantastic race” coach Rajinder said.  Joyful Joseph said “ I would have done 49.6s but I feel bit tired after running 4 one lap races in last three days, still I am happy for setting National Record”

Preeja set National Record while Surender Singh runs fastest 10000m in 29 years on Indian soil

Kolkata, May 13, 2007: Surender Singh of Army set another championship record with a win in men’s 10000m, clocking 28:57.90s, third all-time best timing by an Indian. It’s also the fastest performance on Indian soil. Till now it was legendary Shivnath Singh’s 1978 Jalandhar National win (28:58.1s) was best.
       Running with 70 seconds lap strategy, Surender was paced by Sunil Kumar till halfway Thereafter; it was solo run by Surender fighting with humid and hot climate of Salt Lake Stadium till the finish line as Santosh Kumar Patel (29:19.37s) and Sadashivam Raghunath ( 29:28.52s) were running 200m behind and they never able to close in.

Incredibly, first three winners bettered the championship record of Gulab Chand’s 9 year old record of 29:40.70s.
           
Surender was told to maintain pace of 69-70s but early exit of Sunil Kumar at 5km rather than 7.5k, cost him slow pace for the remaining 5k. Surender is happy with his performance. “I wanted to break Shivnath’s time and I am so happy to do it. In fact, I am not used to run on humid condition but it worked well today for me” elated Surender said. Now its Asian Championship is the aim for Surender and he is confident of running in 28:30 in company of Qater and Bahrin athletes.     
                      
      Inspired by men’s performance, Preeja Sreedharan of Kerala smashed her own National record for the fourth time in the span of one year. Her current record was 33:48.45s set in Doha Asian Games 2006. Preeja clocked 33:19.71s to set New National Record beating Maharashtra’s Kavita Raut who too bettered the championship record of Sunita Rani’s 35:05.18s set in 2000 with a timing of 34:56.51. Host runner Pampa Chanda finished third with 36:03.25s.
    It was in SAF Games in Colombo when Preeja broke L. Aruna Devi's record then she amended it in Open National 2006 and third time she improved it in Doha Asian Games in 2006.

Seema's sweet revenge over Poonia in Discus

At last, Seema Antil not only defended her title but also was victorious over arch rival Krishna Poonia in the Women’s Discus Throw, hurling 1kg Discus to 58.09m compare to 57.02m of Krishna. Seema’s third attepmt throw was enough for victory. It was Seema’s first win over Krishna in 8 months. Harwant Kaur of Punjab Police took third place with modest 55.38m.
    As expected Naunidh Singh of BSF won the men’s high hurdles with a season leading mark of 14.29s beating National Games champion P. Muthusamy (14.38s) of Tamilnadu who too clocked his personal bestNaunidh has an ambition to be member of sub14 club in high hurdles. So far no Indian has gone below 14s barrier in 110m hurdles. Rohit Hawal of Jharkhand took third place with 14.52s.
      National record holder Anuradha Biswal of Orissa faced early challenge from Poonam Bojwana ( 14.13s) in 100m hurdles final but Poonam faded in the end and Anuradha register another comfortable victory with 14.01s although it was below her expectations as she was aiming for sub 14. 

        Joseph Abraham of CRPF who is in good shape remain unbeaten in his second race of the season when he beat Army’s Sarish Paul in men 400m final with a timing of 46.89s. Sarish clocked 47.37s while junior Vinay Chaudhary of UP logged sub 48s timing with 47.63s.
        Women’s 400m was full of surprise till the finish. It was Mandeep Kaur, running in lane 7 enhanced lead till 250m but at the end of the curve Iyleen Samantha of AP emerged leader. Iyleen could not maintained momentum till finish and experienced Chitra Soman crossed the finish line with 53.43s, beating Iyleen (53.47s) and Manjit Kaur (53.86s). It was Chitra’s first victory after a long time as in 2006 Pinki Pramanik and in 2005 Satti Geetha dominated the domestic championship titles.
          Recovering from ankle injury Anil Kumar of Haryana defended his title in the men’s Javelin Throw. Anil’s 73.61m was better than Delhi’s Sunil Goswami’s 72.72m to win Gold. Om Narayan of Haryana, winner of Indian Grand Prix Patiala finished on third place with 71.08m.

Jharkhand's Men team won the 4x100m relay with 41.62s while Tamilnadu took Women's title with 48.44s

Kolkata, 11 May 2007: B. G. Nagraj of Jharkhand finally won the prestigious Federation Cup's Fastest Man title by winning men's 100m dash with a timing of 10.69s beating favorite Sameer Mon of Army ( 10.73s) and host's Rahamatulla Mulla ( 10.84s).
           In the women's as expected Poonam Tomar ( 12.16)of Delhi took extend her winning record to another season. Newly married H. M. Joythi ( 12.19) of Andhra Pradesh and employee of Canara Bank failed to catch Poonam at Finish line. Host's Ranjita Roy took third place with 12.36s.
         Men's 800M it was a close call for Francis Sagayaraj who did not expected C. Hamza to come so closer at finish. Running in lane no 4 in last 50m Francis won the race in 1: 48.27s his personal best while C. Hamza took second spot with 1:48.29s ( PB).
          Sinimol Paluose who had attained World championship B qualifying mark in 1500m, won the 800m with comfortable timing of 2: 05.13s leaving Sushma of Delhi to second place 2:06.67s.
         In the end it was big drama in the Women's Heptathlon where media favorite local girl Susmita Singh Roy, Asian Championship silver medallist  almost missed the title when she failed to register legal throw in the javelin. Sinimol M P failed to take the advantage of this and lost to Susmita by just 4 points. If Sinimol would have ran only 0.5s faster in 800m, she could have created major upset of the championship. Susmita score modest 4891 points while Sinimol MP gather 4887 points .
          Rajesh R of Kerala beat Bhartender Singh of Haryana in the Long Jump with a leap of 7.68m.

Surender wins all time best race in 5000m on Indian soil
Kolkata, May 10,2007: Surender Singh of Army set the New Championship Record in the Men's 5000m with a personal best timing of 13:51.64s erasing Gulab Chand's 9 year old record of 14:01.33 set in 1998 on the opening day of the 13th Federation Cup Athletics Championship at Salt Lake Stadium here. 
           It was Yunus Khan who set the early pace ,thereafter Surender lead all the race except in the 10th lap when Kashinath Aswale of Jharkhand overtook. Kashinath could not sustain the pace and in the last lap Surender regain lead till finish line. Surender performance is now Indian all time third fastest timing in 5000m. Kashinath Aswale too finished second with excellent timing of 13:54.42s which is all time fifth performance. Third place went to S. Raghunath of Tamilnadu with 14:04.58s.
      In the women's 5000m, favorite Preeja Sreedharan of Kerala left no chance for anyone to come closer to her from start to finish, won with 16:07.93s beating Kavita Raut of Maharashtra who registered impressive 16:36.47s in first race after recovering from injury. Third place went to L. Preeti Rao of Jharkhand with 16:45.25s.
           Francis Sagayaraj and Sinimol Paulose moved into finals of the men and women's 800m with a comfortable win in heats. Click here to view the results of the morning session.

13th Federation Cup National
( Sr.) Athletics Championship will commence from May 10 at Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. This championship is the final selection trial for selection of India team for forthcoming Asian Athletics Championship to be held at Beirut (Lebanon) in July. More than 550 top athletes from 20 states and 9 Boards have confirmed their participation. Click here to read Men's event Preview